1. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates to cables for use with radio-frequency identification (RFID)-equipped components and related assemblies, including, without limitation, fiber optic cables for use with RFID-equipped fiber optic connectors and adapters.
2. Technical Background
As networking equipment and networks become more complex, the identification of proper connectors (e.g., plugs and sockets into which plugs are mated) for setting up and maintaining the systems accordingly becomes more complex. For example, typical telecommunications data centers include large numbers of optical and electrical cable connections that join various types of network equipment. Examples of network equipment include electrically-powered (active) units such as servers, switches and routers, and unpowered (passive) units such as fanout boxes and patch panels. This network equipment is often installed within cabinets in standard equipment racks. Each piece of equipment typically provides one or more adapters where optical or electrical patch cables can be physically connected to the equipment. These patch cables are generally routed to other network equipment located in the same cabinet or another cabinet.
A problem in telecommunications data center management is determining the latest configuration of all of the optical and electrical links among all of the network equipment. The configuration of optical and electrical links can be completely determined if the physical locations of all connected patch cable (or “jumper cable”) connectors on installed network equipment are known. In this regard, indicia such as labels, hang tags, markings, coloration, and striping have been used to help identify specific fibers, cables, plugs, and/or sockets. Information about the physical location and connection status of the patch cables and their corresponding ports in a data center cabinet is typically manually recorded and added to a network management software database. While such indicia have been helpful in providing information to the craftsman setting up or servicing a system, large numbers of cables and connections are still complex to manage. Thus, this process is labor-intensive and prone to errors. Additionally, any changes made to the physical configuration of a cabinet must be followed up with corresponding changes to the network management software database, which delays providing the most up-to-date information about the network configuration. Furthermore, errors from manual recording and entering configuration data tend to accumulate over time, reducing the trustworthiness of the network management software database.
In response, radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems have been applied to provide information regarding connectors and related components. RFID systems can automatically and remotely identify individual connections (i.e., connector-port connections). For example, RFID may be employed in optical fiber connectors and adapters employed to establish connections to optical fibers disposed in fiber optic cables. RFID can also be employed for electrical connectors. These RFID systems can employ RFID transponders comprising an antenna and an RFID integrated circuit (IC) chip attached to or otherwise disposed in a connector for use in identification. The RFID IC chip stores information for radio-frequency (RF) communication. An RFID reader comprising a transceiver sends an RF signal to interrogate information from the RFID transponders. The RFID reader can determine stored information about the connector and the cables connected to the connector from the RFID transponders. Current commercially available automated solutions utilize an overlay of copper wiring, which adds cost and complexity to the cabinet while providing only a limited ability to perform connector-port identifications.
While RFID systems have been employed in telecommunication systems to identify system components, one of the difficulties presented is the density and number of the connections involved, which leaves little room for RFID tags. For example, a typical present-day 4 U (i.e., 1 U equals standard 1.75 inches in height) data center cabinet may contain up to one hundred forty-four (144) ports. If each of these ports has at least one RFID tag, then the RFID tags need to be very compact. Such dense arrangements of RFID tags leave very little room for RFID tag antennas that can adequately and efficiently harvest energy from the RFID interrogation signals from the RF reader and ensure that all of the tags in the relatively small volume can communicate the connector-port information to the RF reader. In some cases, standard RFID tag antennas that might work for one RFID application do not work as well for other applications, such as telecommunication cabinets and like telecommunication assemblies, where the density of RFID tags can interfere with RF communication between the RFID tags and the RF reader.